How much longer? (posted on 18 Mar 2008) photo - Dave Beedon photos at pbase.com

Dave Beedon | all galleries >> Miscellaneous (Pseudo Photo-A-Day) > How much longer? (posted on 18 Mar 2008)

How much longer? (posted on 18 Mar 2008)

As of 3/18/08, my subscription has four months left. I don't know how much longer after
that it will last. I am tired of PBase's failings. Its overall slowness is annoying. Its
editing-mode bug of not always going to the next image in a gallery on the first click is
a drag. But more than anything else, I am disgusted with the staff's utter contempt for
subscribers when it comes to responding to suggestions for improvement or requests for
help, and for never announcing that a feature is in development or that it is available.
PBase is the most customer-unfriendly environment I have ever encountered.

I am reluctant to completely walk away because of the wonderful interplay I have
with PBasers who can tolerate my brand of humor: 1moremile, chempilot, dan dunn,
exzim, Gary Winters, Jason Daniel Anderson, John Cooper, John Cross, LeeG,
Monte Dodge, Steve Ainsworth, The Third Side, and others.

For the past couple of months I have been consorting with the enemy (Flickr) to take
advantage of better features, much better service, and lower cost. Two things it has
that excite me are geotagging on Yahoo Maps and the the group/pool concept.

1. Geotagging is the practice of noting on a map where a photo was
taken. (Flickr uses Yahoo Maps, generally inferior to Google Earth).
(UPDATE ON 3/30/08: Haven't tried the beta geotagging system of Pbase.)

2. A group is a subject-oriented entity that is akin to a forum; Flickr
members who choose to join a group can pose questions, ideas, and photos
(the pool part of it). For example: the Renton group/pool that I established
is open to any Flickr member to discuss things about Renton and to post
photos of Renton. Think of a pool as a community-wide gallery devoted to
a particular subject. There are zillions of groups/pools in Flickr; name
a subject and there is a group for it.
(UPDATE ON 3/30/08: Flickr allows images that PBase would never tolerate, but
it has a system of using user-defined filters to control who sees the stuff.)

Flickr has downsides too. Unlike PBase's organizational structure, Flickr's
structure is difficult for newcomers to grasp. Flickr lacks PBase's unlimited
hierarchical gallery system (it has a pseudo-hierarchical model). Flickr does
not offer a choice of style sheets (everybody's pages have a white background).
But for $25/year---with unlimited storage---Flickr is a great deal.

My Flickr equivalent of a PBase "all galleries" page is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7979543@N02/collections/
.

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Dave Beedon		11-Jul-2008 22:53
Thanks, Steve. Dan, thanks for the congratulations. However, quality is more valuable than quantity, as I have explained in the photo's description.

dan dunn		11-Jul-2008 15:50
congrats on breaking a million hits Dave

Steve Ainsworth		01-Apr-2008 13:58
From the Alexandria backwater, I hope pbase miraculously improves and you stick around awhile. I enjoy the silly puns and other quirky stuff that comes from the Renton outpost. I'll check out your Fickr site and see how amenable it is to exchanging silly quips but like someone else said below, I'm too lazy to consider moving my stuff to another site at this time. Are you sure you just don't need another sandstone fix to allow you to put up with the drawbacks of pbase?

dan dunn		30-Mar-2008 21:26
by the way, I used to date a "pseudo-hierarchical" (I had to look it up) model. She was cute but was half-crazy and obsessed with sex...unfortunately not with me though...

dan dunn		30-Mar-2008 21:20
Dave don't leave and become a "Pbastard" for lack of a better word...We like your unusual humor and addictions (Sand Stone et. al) and it's still pretty cheap for what you get! DD

John Cross Photography		20-Mar-2008 11:42
Gonna miss you, Dave. I am too darn lazy to move anything. PBase has one thing going for it (primitive use of the evil math, John) and that is the community. Like John, I was pleasantly surprised at that aspect. It is certainly fun. Unlike Carl, free beer is all I need. Naked chix are a problem because my pacemaker doesn't go that high. LeeG brings back memories of the modem days and the bulletin boards. For me, however, that harkens back to the pre-Windows days: an 8088 processor, DOS 2.0, a whopping 512k memory, dual floppy drives, an external modem and a outrageous phone bill. Agent Listorama - the agengy has spent boatloads of money training you. Get a grip! BTW - does anybody know of a way to back up pbase postings?

Monte Dodge		20-Mar-2008 02:28
No Dave,, You Need to Stay With PBase!!!!!!!!! I get so busy and love you twist on shots and view of life,, plus I can keep tabs on your adventures.. Hopefully you will make it over here to hike,,,, AND our big hiker bash will be held at Wenatchee YMCA camp in Sept. which is a must see trip for you!!!!!!! Vote

chempilot		19-Mar-2008 22:46
oddly enough, i just noticed pbase has added a geotagging feature. they must have heared you were leaving dave....

chempilot		19-Mar-2008 22:19
i like flickr for all of the reasons you mentioned. flickr would be even more cool if everyone else on your pbase list joined. better still, flickr should offer free naked chix and beer to all who join. but, then again, i live in a total fantasy world where things like that happen all the time.... i'll still be here on pbase, but as you know, for the last year i have been slowly moving on over to flickrlandia. see you on the darkside dave!!

Jason Daniel		19-Mar-2008 11:36
Lee's got a point, PBase has simply embraced the broadband age and turned it into a nostalgic look back at the mid 1990's. PBase has definitely started to serve up problems as a standard feature -- not just the speed and quaint interface, but the database outages and alarming hard disk failure (What, me back up?). The tech side of me says they didn't anticipate the growth of the site and are scrambling to keep up; the marketer in me says that's no excuse. I agree that it's the community here, kind of like you said, all you guys who can tolerate my sense of humor or maintain a polite silence when appropriate, that will keep me here for now. Maybe that's PBase's hook. If you do make a move I will certainly consort with the enemy in order to continue to see your photos and leave idiotic comments. As long as they don't try to abduct and brainwash me into being a inside spy for them here on the Base, which if they did correctly I'd never realize it happened anyway. Maybe I've already been there and will experience deja vu when I return. These are the kind of comments I was referring to. PS, it's started snowing right now. Again. Try finding a visually-confirmed, up-to-the-minute weather report for North Providence, RI on Flikr. Never mind, I don't want to know if I've been cloned, too.

John Cooper		19-Mar-2008 09:23
Dave, I have had a Flickr Pro gallery for about a year. I get it free of charge as part of my broadband package. I do not use it much, I find it very slow, and user unfriendly. I put in about 26 photos to try it, so far I have had about 27 hits. Using Evil Math to prove a point. Average hit rate per photo per month, below 1 (just above zero). Pbase is certainly not perfect, but to me it is the best at the moment. I am just about to renew again, about �12 to display nearly 7,000 photos is a bargain to me. To be fair the never ending comments, are a major reason I will stay here, talking to friendly people around the world is a huge bonus. Something I never expected when I joined. Good luck on Flicka, like all the others I will miss you Dave.

Gary Winters		19-Mar-2008 07:44
It is with great sadness that I read your comments, which could only have come from a mind occupied by aliens. After all this time, they've gotten to you! What happened? Did you forget to charge your anti-electro-plasma-decomposer fibulator? I thought even plebes at the Academy understood that it is alien interference with the pbase infrastructure that causes those annoying delays, red-x's, and so on. Cadet Beedon, before it's too late, report to the Reeducation Center and fight the good fight! Why, the idea that there could be a Reston "group" is just further evidence that they've burrowed deep into your brain. How preposterous! Now cut out any talk of abandoning ship. We've just begun to fight!

1moremile		19-Mar-2008 01:32
I hope you will reconsider, Dave. I just renewed my subscription, maybe a week ago. I am really in agreement with you about a few things, though. The slowness, yes, but mostly about the sense of humor a few of us share. It just absolutely would not be the same here without you. I have been having so much fun here. I just don't know. What in the world can we do to convince you to stay??????????????????????????????

exzim		18-Mar-2008 21:56
Although pbase is slow attimes, Flickr seems very user unfriendly to navigate as a viewer. I can't comment on how it is to post to, but I would need convincing its a better alternative.

LeeG		18-Mar-2008 21:16
Pbase has become as slow as Windows 95 with a Rockwell 1200 baud modem and a free Prodigy account .. I hope you reconsider. Slow as it may be, snailpace-pbase, is still an easy way to share your adventures with us less fortunate types.